My Name Is Lucy Barton review – unspoken truths and new beginnings. But aren’t we grateful for the alchemical, unquantifiable mix of factors that allows this woman — embodied by this actress, at this moment, in this place — to share with us so raptly what she knows, or even thinks she knows? On the contrary, as embodied with middle-American forthrightness by a perfectly cast Laura Linney, in the production that opened Wednesday at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater, Lucy may be the most translucent figure now on a New York stage. “ My Name is Lucy Barton was a different kind of book for me, and writing it surprised me. In this follow-up to My Name Is Lucy Barton, sharply compassionate stories find suffering, pity and grace in smalltown America Elizabeth Lowry Sat … It is also the work of a more mature writer, scaling new heights. ‘My Name Is Lucy Barton’ Review: Portrait of Perseverance Laura Linney stars in a solo show about a woman who overcomes a mysterious illness, an abusive childhood and an emotionally absent mother. There is a profound isolation to the title character, played by Laura Linney, in the Broadway solo play My Name Is Lucy Barton.. “In spite of my … The book was first published in the United States on January 12, 2016 through Random House.The book details the complicated relationship between the titular Lucy Barton … “My Name Is Lucy Barton” — like all of Strout’s fiction — is more complex than it first appears, and all the more emotionally persuasive for it. Read it. Every breath of Linney’s performance acknowledges this contradiction. The magic that pulses in a book can disintegrate when these same words are interpreted by a performer who isn’t, as it were, on the same page. Do read "My Name Is Lucy Barton" first to fully appreciate "Anything Is Possible." “Except I do know it, I think. Linney’s presence here is deferential, almost shy. Photo: Manuel Harlan. Aside to Elizabeth Strout: YOU are a ruthless writer! The title character of “My Name Is Lucy Barton,” Rona Munro’s crystalline stage adaptation of Elizabeth Strout’s 2016 novel, is hardly a woman of mystery. 2/12 My Name is Lucy Barton - in pictures. Don’t ever worry about story. My Name is Lucy Barton, Bridge Theatre, London, review: Laura Linney is luminous in this one-woman show. The sense of isolation is palpable and Strout creates a tragic portrayal of a lifetime’s loneliness: “Loneliness was the first flavour I had tasted in my life, and it was always there, hidden in the crevices of my mouth, reminding me.” It is this loneliness, Lucy confides to the reader, that prompted her to become a writer: “Books made me feel less alone… I thought: I will write and people will not feel so alone!”, You wonder if Lucy’s medical condition, undiagnosed throughout the novel, might be psychosomatic; in another setting, she could be the perfect subject for a Freudian case study on hysteria. Theater review by Adam Feldman . My Name Is Lucy Barton--like all of Strout's fiction--is more complex than it first appears, and all the more emotionally persuasive for it." My Name is Lucy Barton. She is separated from her husband and two daughters, aged five and six, whom she misses desperately. The novel – narrated by the protagonist from the vantage point of the future, both with the benefit of hindsight and the unreliability of memory – takes places over five nights in the mid-1980s. If she hadn’t already won the Pulitzer for Olive Kitteridge, this new novel would surely be a contender. Laura Linney as a New York writer recalling her past in “My Name Is Lucy Barton” at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater. Lucy Barton has been in hospital for three weeks with an undiagnosed illness after having her appendix removed. Laura Linney in My Name Is Lucy Barton. 7 June 2018 4 Stars Book Now. Elizabeth Strout’s atmospheric novel, “My Name Is Lucy Barton,” comes to the stage as a glum, gray dud. This review is from June 2018. 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